Computer games give boost to English. The University of Gothenburg in Science Daily: Success in the world of computer games and a good English vocabulary go hand in hand. A recent study has shown that players who are good at computer games increase their English vocabulary. The study also showed a difference between the genders. Boys spend about twice as much time a week playing computer games as girls. However, girls spend about twice as much time a week on Facebook and other language-related activities.

Tools for achieving oral fluency by Marsha Appling-Nunez in Language Magazine: The author makes suggestions for helping English language learners with their speaking and presentation skills. Glogster is a graphical blog that students can use when doing oral books reports, or other presentations. She also recommends PechaKucha Prezi, which is a method of presenting information using pictures only which requires the speaker to focus on good pronunciation, filler reduction, and vocabulary.

2 Responses

Lynn, re the Zorfass & Gray article: As an English teacher, my sense is that college students today are better readers and writers because of digital text. They’re also becoming better thinkers. I don’t have any proof. It’s just a gut feeling based on years of working with student writers. The best part is, the quality of writing/thinking among the top third has really shot up. My guess is that they’re exposed to good writing and thinking from a wide range of sources on an equally wide range of topics day in and day out so it’s rubbing off naturally. And they’re also writing a lot more via social media. Also, writing papers and self-publishing has become extremely easy. They can do it on their smartphones, iPads, notebooks, etc. It’s no longer a tedious task. When they review classmates’ drafts, they routinely suggest using spell check built into word processors and even email and social media. Thus, spelling has drastically diminished as a problem. Unintended consequence? LOL!

[…] Cutting to the Common Core: The Positive Side of the Digital Divide by J. Zorfass and T. Gray in Language Magazine: The authors make the case for using digital texts to support the reading process … […]